A Difficult Decision

Posted on Friday, 23 October 2020 - 1:23pm by Captain Barret Stillwater & Lieutenant Talarn Zilth & Lieutenant JG Maximus Mackenzie

Mission: Operation: Ouroboros
Location: Jupiter Station

ON:

Max sat in the cold sterile recovery room of the station. Haru’s ship had come and gone dropping him off as if he were garbage. He was so mad at them. He took Haru’s hand. The doctors had told him that Haru was still in a coma and that he may not come out. Max’s heart was breaking. He’d been too afraid to approach Stillwater about having Haru transferred onto Standing Bear while he recovered. The Bear was not a family ship.

He’d left a resignation letter, a coward’s way, with the CO’s husband, who… was now technically his boss. He’d left it on the Cardassian’s desk with an explanation of what had happened and that he was not willing to leave Haru alone. He now sat holding his beloved’s hand. “You have to wake up now. I did something dumb you know, I quit today. You have to wake up so you can tell me that you won’t stand for it.” He knew how much Tactical was important to both men. He hoped that Haru could hear him and would wake up.

He was so lost in his misery that he didn’t hear the door open. The doctors and nurses came so often that he’d tuned them out completely.

Commander Barrett Stillwater had been made aware of the contents of the resignation letter. When he was, and when he was able to pinpoint Max's location, the Commanding Officer of the USS Standing Bear tracked the security officer down and made his way through the medical facility and straight into where Max was at Haru's side. Max had not stirred. Stillwater cleared his throat. "Son, you do not come aboard my starship and leave a dear John resignation letter on my husband's desk and walk out on a crew that has had your back. You do not disrespect the uniform that way. Do you want to resign from Starfleet? If so, you do it with dignity, like I did."

At the sound of the familiar voice Max stood and turned. "Sir." He stood at attention. His mind working a thousand miles a minute. "I..." What could he say. He'd resigned from Starfleet once and then he'd been dragged back kicking and screaming. The same thing would happen again. "I'm sorry, Sir, but Haru comes first." Max had never had a problem speaking his mind. "I can't leave him like this." He broke his attention stance and turned. "I can't leave him here alone."

Stillwater looked at Talarn. "This is my husband, you know that Lieutenant Mackenzie," stated Stillwater. "I am not asking you... not ordering you to leave Haru. What I am telling you is that I understand, we both do," Stillwater said reassuringly. "We can petition for a leave of absence. Hell, I am sure between Lieutenant Vali and Dr. Rose, they can come up with a medical leave of absence that will keep you as part of the crew for the time being as Haru recovers."

Talarn had followed Stillwater silently, into the room. Once Barrett had said his peace, he did something he didn't do very often when Barrett was being captain, he took his hand and squeezed it tightly. "We should bring Haru with us. Our doctors are more than capable of taking care of him," the Cardassian said softly. "Lieutenant Mackenzie shouldn't have to leave him any more than you had to leave me." He rested his chin on Barrett's shoulder for a moment and made a little noise that expressed both his seriousness as well as his contentedness.

Max sighed. He watched Talarn and Stillwater and in them he saw himself and Haru. He turned and looked at Haru holding his hand. "They just left him. His crew. They had more important things to do then make sure he was alright." He thought a moment and then turned to Stillwater. Talarn's suggesting had so much hope in it. He turned back to his two bosses. "Is that possible?" he asked of Talarn's suggestion.

"Yes, if you specifically want Doctor Rose and his staff overseeing Haru's care," replied Stillwater. "Though Standing Bear does not have the abundance of technology and personnel that this facility has. I think some sort of compromise can be made. We aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Dr. Rose can be made Haru's primary physician and work out of this facility."

He gave a nod. "That would be great." Just as he'd spoken, alarms started going off. Mac was at Haru's side. He looked around in a panic. Where the hell was the nurse? Without thinking he ran out and was back within seconds with a doctor slung over his shoulder swearing up a blue streak. He dropped her by the bed. "Do something!"

Glaring bloody murder at him she worked on the patient. Mac stepped back tense watched.

The doctor, who'd finished scanning and was adjusting monitors, looked at Stillwater and Talarn. "You two here to take him back with you?" she asked pointing to Max.

"Potentially," Talarn responded. "He will need sleep at some point, I suppose. Can you tell us anything about the patient's condition?" Alarms going off did not diagnose anything for the Cardassian. "We're talking about having his care transferred to a ship and are concerned about his stability."

The woman's eyes bugged out. "Yes please! Anything to get him out." She pointed to Max. "I swear I have a sedative that would knock out 50 Klingons. I'm tempted with this one." She sighed and gave herself a moment to calm down. "He's breathing on his own again." She pointed to the alarms. "That's what those were. His lungs have healed, the ribs that were broken have healed. We've repaired the spinal injuries, but he will need physio. The swelling in his brain is going down, but slowly. We have no idea if there would be any brain damage until the swelling is down and there is a risk of amnesia, but how vast we don't know. Can he be moved, yes. There is nothing that we can do that a Starship can't." She sighed and made a few more adjustments. "Now if you'll excuse me I have medications to dispense, as I was trying to do before this Neanderthal dragged me in here." She turned and left.

Max glared at the woman one last time before he approached Haru's side. He brushed back the stray lock of hair that had fallen across his brow. He turned up. "Sirs, I respectfully withdraw my resignation and request that Haru be transferred in a civilian capacity on the Standing Bear as my partner."

Talarn looked at Barrett. He could give his opinion, but it was Stillwater's decision to make. He was certain that the doctor had been correct in her assessment and that there wasn't anything that they could do here for Haru that couldn't be done on the Standing Bear. At least then they wouldn't have to look for new crew.

"Granted," replied Stillwater. "Now, you have plenty of time here for the time being. The Standing Bear is staying within the Sol system. Some have matters to tend to on Jupiter station. I am heading to Earth."

He gave a nod. "Thank you... both."

"It's simply common decency," Talarn stated. "I'm very clear on how I would feel, given your situation." He gave Stillwater a side eye and smirked.

Mac truly believed it. He'd found someone who understood and for that he was grateful. Not for the first time he'd wondered if he'd found his new home here with this ship, with this crew. His eye shifted to Haru. He'd get through this, they would get through this.

Talarn was still looking at Barret. He squeezed his husband's hand tightly.

Stillwater looked at Talarn. "Yes, Lieutenant?" he said to his husband. "You have something to say? You can say it."

"I love that you're a softy," Talarn said quietly and leaned over, quickly kissing Barret's cheek. He smirked again and shrugged. "What else can I say?" he asked in mock innocence.

"I love you too," Stillwater replied with a small smile.

OFF: